Beijing carpets US ambassador over Russia military sanctions
China has called in American ambassador Terry Branstad in protest against the sanctions for buying Russian arms.
China has called in American ambassador Terry Branstad for a dressing down, recalled its naval chief from a visit to the US and postponed three-day military talks due to start in Beijing tomorrow, in protest against the sanctions for buying Russian military equipment.
China is reported to have cancelled a visit this week by its top economic adviser, Liu He, in the wake of the moves by Donald Trump to impose tariffs of 10 per cent on another $US200 billion of Chinese exports.
The Defence Ministry said the US had no right to interfere in Chinese military co-operation with Russia. “We demand that the US immediately correct the mistake and revoke the so- called sanctions, otherwise the US must bear the consequences,” the ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry said that it had summoned Mr Branstad. The Central Military Commission, which commands the People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest standing military, said that Huang Xueping, the commission’s deputy head for international military co-operation, had also summoned the acting US defense attache on Saturday evening, the Xinhua News Agency said.
Huang said China would immediately recall Shen Jinlong, a Chinese navy commander in the US attending a symposium, and would postpone a three-day meeting starting tomorrow in Beijing about a communication mechanism. “The Chinese military reserves the right to take further countermeasures,” he said.
Washington says China’s purchase of the weapons from Rosoboronexport of Su-35 combat aircraft last year and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment violated a 2017 law intended to punish the government of President Vladimir Putin for interfering in US elections and other activities.
The US State Department announced last Thursday that it would be imposing sanctions on the Equipment Development Department, and its director, Li Shangfu. The EDD will be denied US export licences and banned from making any foreign exchange transactions within US jurisdictions or using the US financial system. Mr Li is banned from getting a visa to visit the US.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has criticised the move as “unreasonable” and warned that it could “seriously damage the relations between the two countries and the two militaries”.
The two superpowers are engaged in bitter exchanges on two fronts with no sign of any improvement in relations.
It now appears Mr Trump is determined to target China as America’s major public enemy with increasingly bitter rhetoric in the lead up to the midterm elections in November.
China has been taken aback by the vehemence of the attacks from the Trump administration. Its view has been to handle the issues through negotiations and public appeals to Washington to soften its stance, but with tensions escalating it may need to rethink its approach.
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